Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cartridge for a medium to be dispensed comprising a rigid head part having a dispensing outlet and a flexible film forming a cartridge wall, with the film bounding a cartridge chamber for the medium to be dispensed, extending at least partially in a longitudinal direction of the cartridge and having a front end connected to the head part. The invention further relates to a dispensing assembly and to a method of manufacturing a cartridge.
Background of the Invention
In the industrial sector, in the construction industry, for example of buildings, and in the dental sector, cartridges are frequently used to store liquid flowable, frequently pasty or viscous to highly viscous substances and to dispense them for the respective application as required. Examples for such substances are joint sealing compounds, compounds for chemical dowels or chemical anchors, adhesives, pastes or impression materials in the dental sector. These cartridges are usually produced from plastic and are manufactured in an injection molding process.
A distinction is made between single-component systems in which the material to be dispensed is only made of one component and two-component or multicomponent systems in which at least two different components are stored in separate chambers of the same cartridge or in separate cartridges, wherein the components are intimately mixed on dispensing by means of a dynamic or static mixing apparatus. Examples for this are two-component adhesives or chemical dowels which only harden after the mixing of the two components. Two-component systems are in particular also used in the industrial sector for paints which are often used to generate functional protective layers such as for corrosion protection.
For reasons of environmental protection, film cartridges are increasingly being used. In contrast to regular cartridges which are completely produced from plastic in an injection molding process, at least parts of film cartridges are designed as a flexible film. Usually the cartridge wall bounding the cartridge chamber is made of a film which is connected to a head part made of rigid material, e.g. plastic, comprising the dispensing outlet. This has several advantages. On the one hand, the unfilled film cartridges can be stored and transported in a collapsed state from the cartridge manufacturers to the manufacturers of the filling materials (media) who then take care of the filling of the empty cartridges. Only after being filled the film cartridge is in its expanded state which is comparable in size to a regular non-collapsible cartridge. This means that the necessary space for storage and for transportation can be reduced, since the collapsed cartridges have a reduced size in comparison to regular non-collapsible cartridges.